Image this: you’ve been in enterprise for about 20 years, and you discover out that the purpose of sale system you’ve been utilizing from the very starting is being discontinued. Now you’re confronted with the duty of discovering a brand new POS and migrating 20 years value of information onto the brand new platform.
Ben Nourse, the Co-owner of Borrego Outfitters, discovered himself on this actual state of affairs just a few months in the past when he discovered that QuickBooks Desktop POS was being discontinued.
Borrego Outfitters, which was based over 20 years in the past, is an informal way of life retailer that has one thing for everybody. From clothes and footwear to wine and gourmand meals, Borrego Outfitters has made a reputation for itself as a retail vacation spot that gives a wealthy and diverse procuring expertise.
The enterprise has constructed up a big database of merchandise, prospects and distributors through the years. Additionally they have a web-based presence, promoting merchandise by way of their WooCommerce retailer. As such, Borrego Outfitters wanted a retail administration system that would deal with all their information whereas making certain the enterprise runs easily throughout a number of channels.
As Ben places it, “It’s not trivial when you’ve got over 20,000 merchandise that you simply’re making an attempt to handle in your level of sale system.”
Selecting Lightspeed over Shopify
Borrego Outfitters first checked out Shopify however confronted challenges with catalog migration and the platform’s capabilities.
“We started to go down the trail with Shopify. However in a short time, we realized that whereas they had been sturdy on-line, Lightspeed’s POS for brick and mortar retail is extra fleshed out,” explains Ben.
They explored Shopify for about 30 days, however in the end determined to modify gears as a result of Shopify “wasn’t actually gonna reduce it.”
“We tried to do an preliminary migration of our product into their platform, and bumped into some points. We began wanting more durable on the complete buying a part of it and realized there have been [also] some points,” he provides.
It was at this level when Borrego Outfitters seemed into Lightspeed Retail. By exploring Lightspeed’s capabilities, Ben and the crew found that Lightspeed is a significantly better match for a enterprise of their measurement.
“Intuit is admittedly pushing all people to Shopify. However our expertise has been ok with Lightspeed that we’ve stated, ‘You actually ought to have a look at Lightspeed as a result of it’s most likely extra mature than you’d uncover from Shopify,” provides Ben.
Implementing a structured migration course of
As a enterprise that’s been round for many years, Borrego Outfitters had a number of information emigrate. Ben was apprehensive about switching, however his systematic strategy—backed by Lightspeed’s buyer assist—allowed him to make the change with relative ease.
A number of the key components of migration course of concerned:
Transferring their information
Testing the system
Staging the system
Coaching the crew
Ben labored with Sophie Worth, a Senior Implementation Guide at Lightspeed, to facilitate the migration course of.
“Sophie was actually good and useful. She went above and past in responding to my particular questions, along with the general coaching” shares Ben.
Elevating Borrego Outfitters’ operations + buyer expertise
With the migration full, Borrego Outfitters was in a position to streamline their again workplace operations, whereas enhancing the shopper expertise.
From on-premise to the cloud
For starters, Borrego Outfitters now not needed to preserve servers and backups for his or her POS. In contrast to QuickBooks Desktop POS (an on-premises resolution), Lightspeed Retail runs within the cloud, which implies the information is mechanically synced and accessible from anyplace. This not solely reduces the chance of information loss but additionally simplifies the IT infrastructure, resulting in price financial savings and enhanced operational effectivity for Borrego Outfitters.
“We’ve been in a position to basically transfer all of that stuff to the cloud. In order that’s an enormous price and complexity saving—at the least at some degree, eliminating all of the desktop {hardware}, the servers and issues that had been wanted to make certain we had sufficient reliability. That’s been one other plus for us,” says Ben.
Higher stock administration options
By adopting Lightspeed, Borrego Outfitters additionally elevated their stock administration practices. Ben highlights how Lightspeed’s catalog instruments outshine QuickBooks Desktop POS.
“Throughout the board, what we actually like about it’s the truth that we’re in a position to prepare our merchandise and arrange our merchandise properly in Lightspeed,” shares Ben.
With their earlier POS, Borrego Outfitters confronted inflexible phrase rely limits for product names and descriptions. Lightspeed, however, provides extra flexibility, so the Borrego Outfitters crew now not has any constraints when including and managing merchandise to their catalog.
A seamless ecommerce integration
Switching to Lightspeed allowed Borrego Outfitters to unify product administration throughout ecommerce and brick and mortar.
Beforehand, they’d to make use of middleware to attach their POS with their web site—a suboptimal resolution that required some guide entry. Lightspeeed eradicated the necessity for that additional layer, simplifying the method.
“One of many sturdy promoting factors of Lightspeed for us was that it had WooCommerce integration. It’s truly proved to work out fairly nicely,” feedback Ben.
A greater checkout expertise
Lastly, Lightspeed Funds streamlined Borrego Outfitters’ checkout course of, significantly on the subject of {hardware}. Their earlier tools, says Ben, was unreliable and created hiccups on the level of sale, the place prospects needed to faucet their card once more.
Lightspeed Funds eradicated this subject, providing a smoother, extra constant transaction expertise.
In response to Ben: “What’s been actually optimistic for us about Lightspeed has been that the promoting course of works nice. The pin pads faucet while you’re speculated to faucet ’em. The loyalty program is straightforward and simple to clarify.”
Able to make the change?
For Borrego Outfitters, switching to Lightspeed wasn’t nearly discovering a brand new level of sale system—it was about elevating their retail operations.
From environment friendly catalog administration to unified multichannel retailing, Borrego Outfitters’ story highlights the significance of selecting a system that aligns along with your operational wants and enterprise development.
See what Lightspeed Retail can do for what you are promoting. From easy-to-use POS and ecommerce instruments to superior reporting, Lightspeed is right here that can assist you scale and succeed.
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